I'm surprised how many people seem to not have even heard of Swaziland. I mean I don't know much about it, but I had certainly heard of it.

Also, though they may not keep patents online, it's quite likely they do keep them in a computerized database for logistical purposes. And just for those curious, it's possible to copyright creative works in Swaziland and have them protected in 160+ other member nations with a single form. Realistically this probably means that Blizzard could have filed with any of those nations and chose to have it protected in any of the others, or to protect it in just the filing nation, or in just a small selection of the nations.

Basically, we'd need to look through all possible countries (which is around 196, but it depends on the source - it's above 190 in almost all cases). It's probably easier to look through countries that store copyrights online for obvious reasons. I'm not sure if you'd be able to get much out of offices that don't have online copyright records due to obvious reasons.

Who we really want to be looking at are their legal reps. You won't get anything out of them directly of course, but they may have left a paper trail to follow. It's unlikely, but still, might be worth a shot.

Also, amusingly, the patent after the Hearthstone one (i.e. #86003647) is for something called B.I.L.F.Blizzard, I'd like to... you know the rest

Originally Posted by Captain Gir

1) That is called the alpha beta, Then the friends and family (with an NDA)

and 2)..you could just not roam around MMO-Champ, or any other site (wowhead, reddit) that is wow affiliated if you dont want to get spoiled.

Actually, it's just Alpha, not Alpha Beta. Alpha and Beta are 2 separate stages
It used to go F&F Alpha, then invite only Beta.

I could be wrong but I do not think the trademark in Swaziland has anything to do with Blizzard as there is an entry under the Prosecution History which states "new application entered in TRAM" on 10/07/13. It looks to me that Blizzard have filed for the trademark and then found out someone else has registered it in Swaziland, although I could be completely wrong.

edit Looking through Cata's filling there are a number of entries under the prosecution history so it is probably nothing.

I could be wrong but I do not think the trademark in Swaziland has anything to do with Blizzard as there is an entry under the Prosecution History which states "new application entered in TRAM" on 10/07/13. It looks to me that Blizzard have filed for the trademark and then found out someone else has registered it in Swaziland, although I could be completely wrong.

edit Looking through Cata's filling there are a number of entries under the prosecution history so it is probably nothing.

Right, TRAM is just what the US Trademark Office calls the database used by its examiners. Nothing special.

So what I want to know is if the US trademark office had any knowledge of it when it was registered in a foreign country in order to give priority. If someone registered Hearthstone in the US during that period between the Swaziland registration and the US registration, what happens?

Blizzard wins due to its earlier filing date in Swaziland. Because both US and Swaziland are parties to the Paris Convention Treaty, Blizzard's filing in Swaziland triggers a 6-month window in which it can then file in the US and retain the Swaziland filing date as its priority date. So anyone filing after that date (Feb. 28) would be junior to Blizzard's Hearthstone mark.

The Hearthstone mark does not even need to register as an actual trademark in Swaziland for the US application to get the Swaziland date, filing an application in Swaziland is enough.

Aww..I was looking forward to the expansion name leaking within the next month and seeing the hype about it rise etc. I can't see how it's a bad thing for Blizzard when the expansion name leaks, it gets people talking about it which surely that's what they want?